Hey all i am confused about how to practice kung fu, my school
that teaches praying mantis, islamic longfist and tai chi chuan.
I told my instructor that i was doing pushups and situps and bag
work everyday, and he said that its not good to do that because
it’ll tense me up too much and defeat the whole concept, so i was
wondering how am i suppose to practice kung fu if i can’t workout?
You first need to develop good Body mechanics for your style, before you start training weights and for strength.
Go with your Instructors advise, he knows best how to develop fighters in his style.
Since you are beginner train your basics as much as you can, don’t worry about the rest it will come when you are ready for it.
The “secret” to becoming a good MA is basics, basics & more basics plus constant proper training.
Just my opinion naturally and means nothing.
youngmantis, I have doe some training in some traditional martial arts and I hear that alot, about doing weight lifting or other muscle building exercises and tightening your body up, this just isn’t true. If your working out, juts make sure you stretch everyday. I usually stretch before and after my workout and if I can before I go to bed in the evening.
As a matter of fact for the most part people report loosening up after an extended period of weight lifting, over a few months usually. For the most part the idea that weight lifting is bad for you in kungfu is an outdated and misunderstood concept.
Aslo, as LC said, basics basics basics.
well its not that its tightening my body up, hes not worried about flexibility, he just said you have to be relaxed when you do this certain type of kung fu, and the relaxation helps you gain power, he said if I do pushups and situps, my muscles will be too tense and I won’t be relaxed enough therefore there won’t be as much power. So i thought there has to be some way to get muscle and still not screw up my kung fu.
Funny, because my 7-star praying mantis class required you to do pushups and situps!! And the instructor grew up and trained in China. Depends on the style. But listen to your teacher, or else go somewhere else. At first, you will be getting plenty of exercise just by doing drills, believe me. Your body needs time to adjust. If you feel you aren’t getting some kind of a workout during class, especially in your legs, than you might not be in the right school. But I don’t mean to discourage you from staying there - your teacher may want you to develop your technique first before starting to add strength training.
Maybe he just meant that you are doing a LOT of volume on your outside training for a beginner, and to cut back a bit?
Youngmantis.
Which of the 3 systems are you taught at the moment.
If it is TJQ, you will need to stretch the joints and learn to be relaxed before you start on strength training exercises.
Also you need to learn to use less “li” (muscle power) and more “Ii”(Intent).
Different systems got different requirements, some as fa-jing mentioned require you to build your body and muscles first in other you do so at a later stage.
Cheers
Well we get to pick which system we want to be taught, but since i’m in beginners class we don’t focus much on which style we want but teaching our body naturally to stay relaxed. Yesterday I went to kung fu and I got a huge workout, from doing stances punches, kicks etc. But Not a direct abdominal workout, so I’m worried I might lose my six pack if I don’t do situps, but if I do situps I might get too tense and not be able to successfully do the movements and forms correctly.
Sorry for any spelling errors, I just woke up.
I train in HK Mantis and my sifu had us do crunches and push ups at the end of every classes. he said the reason whe do crunches is that kung fu doesnt train the abs and the abs are essential for the body mechanics, rotating for punches and kicks and blocks and moving and everyting . 
wouldn’t rotating for the punches work the abs too though?
Well this is just the rambelings of a new 7* student, but here goes nothing. At the begining of each class we do streching, and 4 sets of 25 of push-ups, crunches/sit-ups, and hindu squats. We also train throwing weighted punches, throw many, many slow precise kicks, and do tendon training.
Then the fun starts . . . we do forms, applications, even a little sparring. The reason as my Sifu says is that we will exhaust our muscles to the point that we have no choice but to be relaxed. Our muscles are too dam n tired to be tense. I have noticed that after said “warm up” I never am told that my shoulders are raising, or that My body posture is too rigid.
That being said we focus on a lot of proper body mechanics while we throw the kicks and punches, and when we do the forms (at least at the stage that I am) we do them slow emphasizing proper movement and balance. Eventually the intent and power will come, but first we need to do the basics.
Just a thought about your workout, are you doing the push-ups and sit-ups right before you go to class? If so it may be that your Sifu is concerned that when you get to class your muscles will still be a bit tense from your workout and will interfere with his/her particular training method. Also I may be wrong, but if you keep up with your cardio, you will have a hard time loosing the sixpack. When you breathe all of your breathing exercizes are using your abs, because all breathing should be controlled by your abs and diaphram, not your ribs/chest.
Again just my rambelings, any comments?
PAMantis
If someone is telling you not to do regular bodyweight training then they are probably nuts and cant fight.
Or they are nuts and they can fight.
nuts.
Yenhoi, I so agree, true dat, where do these people come up with this bullcrap.
Working out builds key attributes, its builds confidence, aggression and fortitude of spirit.
Start working out.
Youngmantis.
IMO, if you doubt what your Sifu is saying and you are looking for extra advise online, than there is something not quiet right.
Who do you want to learn from?
The guys on here or your Sifu?
Have you related those worries you got to your sifu and talked with him about them?
Not trying to come down on you, but I see more and more students questioning what their Sifu tells them, makes me wonder who got the knowledge and why people still need a Sifu.
Honestly talk about it with your Sifu and ask him to give you reasons as to why.
If you are not satisfied with the answer than you can look for another kwoon.
Just my thoughts.
I think 100% of the problem is sifu says.
Sifu says think this way.
Even if the Sifu didnt say it.
bs, and then more bs.
:eek:
Yenhoi, Sifu said you shouldn’t talk like that on the internet.
Originally posted by yenhoi
[B]I think 100% of the problem is sifu says.
Sifu says think this way.
Even if the Sifu didnt say it.
bs, and then more bs.
:eek: [/B]
Like I said if Sifu talks that much rubbish than what to we need them for?
Why even sign up at a kwoon and study a style?
Come on Yenhoi tell me how YOU learned MA and gained all that knowledge and skill if YOUR Sifu talked that much rubbish too.
youngmantis - you MUST be fit and strong to practice kung fu. Unless you want to be a new-age-taichi-for-health-hippy. You have to work out. You also have to stay supple and relaxed to perform your kung fu correctly. Yin yang.
Talk to you teacher more about it and he might explain himself better. But any kung fu without good muscle, cardio and flexibility workouts is NOT good kung fu.
well the thing is hes not really my sifu, hes just the instructor, and the sifu only teachers advance classes, my instructor although is still very good at teaching, the workout thing is just a little confusing, but he also teaches longfist which probably i s the thing that got him to think that way.
I doubt it. When I was in longfist, we worked out constantly. it consisted mainly of BWE (bodyweight exercises) and some apparatus training. I always did extra and hit the weights - contrary to what some people at the school thought, it did nothing to slow me down or limit my flexibility.
Originally posted by Laughing Cow
[B]
Come on Yenhoi tell me how YOU learned MA and gained all that knowledge and skill if YOUR Sifu talked that much rubbish too. [/B]
That’s the thing… knowing how to teach MA is one thing - but doesn’t make you qualified to tell me how or if I should work out. Part of the problem, IMHO is that too many people today expect their sifu to know EVERYTHING, which just isn’t the case. my sifu could tell me all about CMA, but really couldn’t tell me squat about working out, because I know more than him in that area. Other students would come to me for workout advice also.